Are Europeans morally good or bad?

It’s fair to say the world is in a difficult place, often leaving us to wonder about the moral compass of those around us.

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Nevertheless, it seems most of us do tend to believe in the goodness of others.

A new study published by the Pew Research Center found that, out of 25 countries surveyed, more respondents say people in their country have “somewhat good” or “very good” morals than those who say they have “bad” morals.

Looking at Europe specifically, the Swedes emerge as the most optimistic, with 88% believing that other Swedes are good. They’re followed by the Brits (82%) and the Dutch (80%).

Globally, Canadians and Indonesians are the ones who see their fellow citizens as morally good the most, at 92%.

In fact, the only country surveyed where this isn’t the case is the US, with only 47% of respondents saying their fellow citizens have good morals and ethics, compared to 53% saying they’re bad.

How ‘moral’ is homosexuality?

The study also asked respondents whether they think certain behaviours, such as homosexuality, getting a divorce or gambling, are morally acceptable or just not a moral issue at all.

In the case of the former, European countries dominate the top of the list of those saying it isn’t morally wrong.

Some 94% of Swedes and Germans say that homosexuality is morally acceptable or a non-issue, as do 93% of Spaniards and 91% of Dutch respondents.

Next come the Italians and the French (87%), with Australia (85%), the UK (83%), Canada (82%) and Argentina and Japan (77%) rounding out the top 10.

Those at the bottom end of the table tend to come from Africa and Asia, with 96% of Nigerians saying homosexuality is morally unacceptable, followed by 93% of Indonesians and 80% of those in Turkey and Kenya.

Regardless, the Pew Research Center found that people in several countries surveyed are less likely to say that homosexuality is wrong today than they were in 2013.

The study also revealed that, overall, younger adults are far more accepting of homosexuality than their older counterparts, and in many countries, men are more likely than women to say homosexuality is morally unacceptable.

This is especially true in Greece, where men are twice as likely as women to hold that view (40% vs 20%). In most of the other countries where there’s a significant difference, it tends to hover around the 10% mark.

Nevertheless, the EU has accelerated its efforts to boost the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in recent years, such as introducing its LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy for 2026 to 2030.

The initiative aims to protect sexual minorities from violence (particularly cyberbullying), ban conversion practices and make equality more mainstream across EU policy areas.

More and more European countries are also approving same-sex marriages, with Liechtenstein, Greece and Estonia among the most recent to do so.

Additionally, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in November that EU countries must recognise same-sex marriages legally performed in another EU country for residency and free movement purposes, even if that country doesn’t permit same-sex marriage internally.